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StewgreenFrom your reply i take it your lack of NI contributions was from choice.

The Pensions Act 1995 provided for the State Pension age (SPA) for women to increase from 60 to 65 over the period April 2010 to 2020. The Coalition Government legislated in the Pensions Act 2011 to accelerate the latter part of this timetable, starting in April 2016 when women’s SPA was 63 so that it would reach 65 in November 2018. The equalised SPA would then rise to 66 by October 2020. The reason was increases in life expectancy since the timetable was last revised.

The Coalition Government initially intended that the equalised SPA would then rise to 66 by April 2020 (Cm 7956, November 2010, Foreword). However, because of concerns expressed at the short notice of significant increases for some women (as much as two years compared to the timetable in existing legislation) the Government made a concession when the legislation was in its final stages. This limited the maximum increase under the Act at 18 months, at a cost to the Exchequer of £1.1 bn - see Library Briefing Paper, SN 06082 Pensions Bill 2011 – final stages (November 2011).

That dog’s breakfast of a Brexit deal that Theresa May is trying to get through, the European Union has insisted that this is a take it or leave it deal. To which the correct response is sure, we’ll leave it and we’ll leave.

What is actually being offered isn’t in fact leaving anyway, it’s an agreement to be tied to the Brussels apron strings without any voice at all in what they insist we do. That’s not the action of a sovereign nation, that’s to be reduced to a lickspittle colony.

Better that we take the hit of crashing out into a WTO terms deal and then rebuild from there...

Straight to the point and spot on.

Then we have Liam "turncoat" Fox "Speaking on Friday, Liam Fox – the International Trade Secretary – gave a speech in which he declared ‘a deal is better than no deal’. This is rather different to May’s old claim that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’."

...In a stunning move, the long-held notion that Gibraltar is and always will be a British Overseas Territory has been fatally undermined by little-noticed yet supremely important clauses within the Withdrawing Agreement between the EU and GB&NI.

Spain will be given seats on a Committee which will control access, use and governance of Gibraltar Airport. Long a target for the grasping and corrupt hands of the Spanish, access to the very lifeline of Gibraltar as an independent entity has been given away to the corrupt hands of the Spanish, who have always wanted a foothold in Gibraltar proper.

The supposed ‘transition period’ could last indefinitely or, more specifically, to an undefined date sometime this century (“up to 31 December 20XX”, Art. 132).

We can only leave the transition positively with a deal. But we sign away the money. So the EU has no need to give us a deal, and certainly no incentive to make the one they offered ‘better’ than the backstop.

The European Court of Justice remains sovereign, as repeatedly stipulated.

Perhaps most damagingly of all, we agree to sign away the rights we would have, under international law, to unilaterally walk away.

The top 40 horrors - I've picked out a few:

May says her deal means the UK leaves the EU next March. The Withdrawal Agreement makes a mockery of this. “All references to Member States and competent authorities of Member States…shall be read as including the United Kingdom.” (Art 6). Not quite what most people understand by Brexit.

The EU admits, in Art. 184, that it is in breach of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty which oblige it to “conclude an agreement” of the terms of UK leaving the EU. We must now, it seems, “negotiate expeditiously the agreements governing their future relationship.” And if the EU does not? We settle down to this Agreement.

The UK is forbidden from revealing anything the EU told us or tells us about the finer points of deal and its operation. (Article 105).

Any powers the UK parliament might have had to mitigate EU law are officially removed. (Article 128)

Art 40 defines Goods. It seems to includes Services and Agriculture. We may come to discover that actually ‘goods’ means everything. The “goods” and the term “services” we are promised the deal are not defined – or, rather, will be defined however the EU wishes them to be.

The agreement will last as long as the country’s youngest baby lives. “the persons covered by this Part shall enjoy the rights provided for in the relevant Titles of this Part for their lifetime”. (Article 39).

The UK agrees not to prosecute EU employees who are or who might be deemed in future, criminals (Art.101)

The agreement will be policed by ‘the Authority’ – a new UK-based body with ‘powers equivalent to those of the European Commission’. (Article 159)

Any disputes under the Agreement will be decided by EU law only – one of the most dangerous provisions. (Article 168). This cuts the UK off from International Law, something we’d never do with any foreign body.

And, of course, the UK will agree to pay £40bn to receive all of these ‘privileges’. (Article 138)

The more I read, the angrier and sadder I become. Truly horrendous

Traitor May has internationally humiliated the UK with her surrender - I've seen several USA news saying "UK Humiliated"

The French are misguided.There is 290 million~ vehicles on euro roads ,most are of a extremely high mass and complexity .Agrarianism and the consumer war economy do not mix.Best solution to crash prices is for the banks to stop their consumer credit which is stealing from the community via its inflationary injections.